Earlier today Wizards of the Coast unveiled more details about the upcoming shortened 2020 competitive season and the Mythic Invitationals. The announcement adds a of detail to the previously announced Mythic Qualifiers and Mythic Point Championships, which will help players qualify for MTG Arena’s marquee events.
The 2020 Mythic Invitationals
Wizards confirmed the dates for the three Mythic Invitational events on the 2020 calendar year:
- Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths—May 14-17
- Core 2021—July 23-26
- Zendikar Rising—October 22-25
These events will feature 128 invitations, up from the previously announced 64, will have $750,000 prizes pools, and will be held over a four-day period.
Mythic Qualifiers
The Mythic Qualifiers were previously weekend-long affairs requiring players to use a third-party tool to participate in the second day of the competition.
With today’s announcement, they will be transitioning single-day events featuring best-of-three Standard. Players will still qualify by finishing in the Top 1200 Mythic rankings for the preceding month’s standings. Another big change to these events is that participants will now play until they receive either 10 wins or two losses, whichever comes first. Anyone with 10 wins will be invited to the Mythic Invitational and anyone with five or more wins will receive a yet-to-be-announced amount of Mythic Points (also used to qualify for the Mythic Invitational). Each win will award 200 gems.
In the previous system, all players who made day two of a Mythic Qualifier received Mythic Points and the Top 16 finishers were to be invited to the Mythic Invitational.
Mythic Point Challenges
Mythic Point Challengers are similar events to Mythic Qualifiers in the sense that they are open to the same pool of players (Top 1200 Mythic rankings) and will feature traditional Standard. Participants will play to 10 wins or 3 losses, whichever comes first. Players with five wins will receive a yet-to-be-announced amount of Mythic Points, which will help those players climb the Challenger rankings for their shot at the Magic Rivals League. Each win will award 200 gems.
Ikoria Mythic Qualifiers/Challenge Schedule
- January 11th—Qualifier #1 (Invites Top 1200 from December Rankings)
- February 29th—Challenge (Invites Top 1200 from January Rankings)
- March 14th—Qualifier #2 (Invites Top 1200 from February Rankings)
Core 2021 Qualifiers/Challenge Schedule
- April 4th—Challenge (Invites Top 1200 from March Rankings)
- May 23rd—Qualifier #1 (Invites Top 1200 from April Rankings)
- June 20th—Qualifier #2 (Invites Top 1200 from May Rankings)
Wizards also announced that the Top 8 players in the Mythic Point rankings in the Q1 2020 events (the Ikoria events above) who are otherwise not invited to the Ikoria Mythic Invitational will earn invites as part of the increase from 64 to 128 players.
The 2019 Team Series Finals
Lastly, Wizards announced that the finals for the 2019 Team Series, which concluded earlier this year, would be held at MagicFest Austin in January. The event will pit the Ultimate Guard Pro Team and the Hareruya Sword team against each other with the winner taking home $100,000 and the runner-up taking home $50,000. The two teams will compete in Theros Beyond Death team drafts for the title.
Grand Prix Coverage was not originally scheduled for Austin’s Magic Fest, but to provide coverage of the Team Series final the planned coverage of Grand Prix Portland this coming weekend has been rescheduled for Grand Prix Austin. Coverage of the Grand Prix’s Top 8 will follow the Team Series finals.